February 21, 2012

This morning I went to the dentist for the first time in… hmmm… well, I will leave that date unknown b/c you will forever think differently of me… let’s just say it was 2 degrees ago. ACK! I’m scared of the dentist… please stop judging me. For whatever reason I picture this in my head… (probably b/c I got my wisdom teeth taken out while I was awake… and 14 teeth pulled when I was a kid… but that’s another story…)

The idea of going to the dentist when I don’t have to? No thank you.

But…finally, my conscious got the best of me and after a long time I made an appointment for a cleaning this morning.

Understandably, I was convinced that I would have major cavities, a gloomy diagnosis of gum disease, and the need for 2 or 3 root canals. I showed up with sweaty palms, a trembling spirit and a high heart rate. As the hygienist sat me down, I said, “I’m kind of terrified here.” She told me to not be scared and that she would be very gentle. She then pointed me to the television ON THE CEILING (what??) where I quickly turned the volume up way louder than the machines in my mouth and proceeded to get lost in Robin Roberts’ amazing biceps and Kelly Ripa’s Live with Kelly from Hawaii. Before I knew it the cleaning was over. I was impressed… it didn’t hurt, no taste of blood in my mouth… things were looking good…

The dentist came in shortly after. As he examined my x-rays, and poked around on each tooth, I braced myself… “Here we go.” I thought, “The hygienist was sparing me. She didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news…the diagnosis will be bad… very bad…” Then the dentist said, “Well… your teeth are pretty much in perfect condition.” I literally sat up with my bib still attached, and said, “What??? Me?? No way.” He said, “Yep, one filling popped out but other than that you’re good!” At which point I hugged them both, jumped up and down and claimed them all as my new BFF’s. Not really…but pretty darn close. I left the office with a pep in my step, a belief that I could conquer the world, and an inflated sense of self. On the way home I stared down everyone I saw and tried to telepathically impress them with my lack of cavities…. And then I went and got a Dr. Pepper to celebrate. Sixty-four grams of sugar seemed like an appropriate reward for such an accomplishment.

Four adults spending an entire afternoon at the arcade sounds creepy… But that’s how I spent a cold February day last week and it was nothing less than awesome. Sean, brother James, his beautiful girlfriend Meredith, and I wanted to play put-put golf… but it was too cold and the course was closed… Our next idea was bowling… but when we got there the lanes had a major waiting list and none of us wanted to wait… so we wandered down a long hallway beside the bowling alley to the mother of all arcades. It was glorious. It was loud. It was bright. And it was addictive. Before long we were spending good money on tokens and running around like a bunch of middle schoolers. Skee ball, wheel of fortune, air hockey, motorcycle races… it was never ending.

We were winning tickets. MAJOR TICKETS. We decided to try to win as many tickets as possible and then give them to an unsuspecting kid before we left. This mission gave us a purpose… and when Meredith somehow won 1,000 tickets off of a 3-token game, we knew heaven was on our side.

Eventually we ran out of tokens, and with thousands of tickets on hand, we began our search for the right recipient. Eventually we found him. A small 5 year old boy quietly playing a game in his mother’s lap. Meredith walked over with the tickets and asked the mother, “Would he like these? We were just here to have fun and don’t want them.” She looked up like we were offering her a million dollars… “What?? No way!??!??” She leaned into her son and said, “Can you believe this?? Can you believe this?!??!!!?” The mom put the tickets in her son’s lap and he looked like he had seen a ghost. A happy ghost… a fun ghost like Casper or something... there must be a better metaphor for this situation.

It was a ton of fun. If I ever throw myself a birthday party, I may suggest we all go to the arcade… pool our tickets and give them away… too much fun. In fact, it was so much fun that I went yesterday by myself on my way home from running errands. Just kidding. Now an adult at an arcade by themselves…. that is creepy.